Homeless families increasingly leaving SF for stability in other cities

The walls of Jamahl Mackey’s two-bedroom apartment in Sacramento are bare except for a framed poster of San Francisco and a third-grade school portrait of his son. There isn’t a lot of furniture — a couch, a kitchen table, chairs, just the essentials. But it’s home.

A little over a year ago, after he was laid off from a solar company, home for the single father and his son was a Mitsubishi Galant parked on a rotating list of San Francisco streets, or occasionally a relative’s couch or a motel if there was enough cash. Parking under streetlights, he promised his son he would make things better.

When Mackey reached out to San Francisco aid workers for help, he never imagined what that phone call would bring: a new life outside the city.

But he and his son, 8-year-old Jamahl Jr., are among an increasing number of families leaving behind the city they love to find stability and affordable rent elsewhere, with San Francisco’s blessing and financial support. It’s an approach to fighting homelessness that echoes across costly communities around the Bay Area.

More on Homelessness in S.F.

Just a few years ago, the vast majority of homeless families who sought city assistance, like Mackey’s, ended up staying in San Francisco, getting rental assistance and other support from city-funded organizations such as Hamilton Families. Now, most leave, finding homes in Vallejo, Oakland, Richmond and Sacramento, with the San Francisco money and support following them for up to two years.

It’s a dramatic shift in how the city addresses family homelessness, a regional approach that means fortifying families even if they need to set down roots somewhere else. It makes sense because nothing is as effective in helping a family off the streets as a home, no matter where it is, said Tomiquia Moss, chief executive of the nonprofit Hamilton Families, one of the city’s biggest providers of support for the homeless.

“The unfortunate reality is that (even) people with high incomes can’t afford to live in San Francisco,” she said. “We’re going to present options wherever we can to give families the opportunity to get stable.”

This year, 87 percent of the more than 200 families served by Hamilton Families are living outside the city. Three years ago, 75 percent remained in San Francisco.

“Those are really hard choices for families,” Moss said. “But when you’re looking at getting your child into a stable situation, figuring out a way to rebuild your life, our families are making those choices.”

Mackey, 32, opened his locker at Federico Beauty Institute in Sacramento and stowed a mannequin head, the bright red hair swinging across a Wonder Woman emblem shaved into the side. He had spent months learning to cut and color hair, and lessons now focused on shaves and facials. He hopes to graduate as a master barber in mid-April.

He moved to Sacramento about 15 months ago, part of Hamilton Families’ rapid rehousing program, pulling his son out of San Francisco schools.

For Mackey, San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood had always been home, though he moved a lot, attending five high schools in San Francisco as well as others in Richmond and Sacramento. He dropped out at age 17, and by his mid-20s he was a father. He took sole custody of his son six years ago and earned his high school diploma at 30.

“I would have liked to stay in San Francisco,” he said. But his experience living in a car after his layoff showed him he needed to build a savings account as a safety net, and “San Francisco isn’t really the place you can do that.”

His caseworker, Laura Combs, has continued to work with him, sometimes driving the 200-mile round trip to Sacramento, helping him navigate his enrollment at beauty college and find an apartment, among other support.

“It’s meant the world to me,” he said. “Where I’m at now, it would have been impossible for me, with a clear mind, to go to school and pay my bills as a single father.”

Escalating housing costs, like the ones that nudged Mackey east, are rippling all over Northern California. Faced with the choice of stashing people on long waiting lists for housing or sending them to more affordable areas, cities and aid groups are embracing relocation.

With rising rental costs forcing spikes in homelessness even in less urbanized areas such as Butte and El Dorado counties, the distance people are having to move is getting longer. Alameda County, which a few years ago had a wide range of options, is now looking as far away as Fresno for relatively cheap housing.

“We are all placing people into areas where the funds can go further,” said Elaine de Coligny, executive director of EveryOne Home, the nonprofit group that coordinates homeless aid in Alameda County. “If you look at the housing pricing maps, yes, San Francisco is red-hot for prices going up, but we are now deep orange (almost as expensive). We are facing a similar dilemma in that our resources can afford Vallejo, Stockton, places like that, but not so easily places in our own county.”

A favorite spot to send people is Vallejo, where average rent is about half of San Francisco’s. Aid officials in Solano County might cringe at other counties snapping up some of their low-cost housing, but they understand.

“It does make it harder to house our families. There can be some competition for units ... but folks are resourceful,” said Tonya Nowakowski, assistant director of Solano County social services. “And the surrounding counties have been great partners and informers. We work with them.”

San Francisco’s Moss said the city has no intention of abandoning homeless families in other counties.

“Not only are we not dumping, we have a responsibility to make sure these families don’t become homeless in these new communities,” she said. “We are not displacing our problem someplace else.”

In San Francisco, officials expect that more than 800 families will need help finding a place to live next year. Homeless families have declined to about 1,100, down 20 percent since 2015, but the need remains extensive.

The city has for years been ramping up efforts to combat family homelessness, building housing and working to prevent evictions. The idea is for families to spend as little time as possible without a stable home.

In December, Mayor Ed Lee announced a $30 million public-private partnership to eradicate the problem of family homelessness in three years, housing 800 families and creating a no-wait system of support for those at risk of landing on the streets.

That goals have since been fine-tuned by homeless-program leaders, who want to ensure no families with children are unsheltered by December 2018 before fully phasing out family homelessness by December 2021. Salesforce.com chief executive Marc Benioff and marketing consultant Lynne Benioff, his wife, are among the major donors to the effort, called the Heading Home Campaign.

Living in a car or a shelter can be defining for a child, hindering brain development and limiting future prospects for success. Children who experience homelessness are more likely to be homeless when they grow up, research has found.

When he was head of Hamilton Families, Jeff Kositsky was the one who kicked the concept of relocation into higher gear. By the time he left his post in the summer of 2016 to take over leadership of the city’s newly created Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, he was sending more than half of his families out San Francisco.

“I don’t care where it is, as long as it’s stable, and we do make sure to follow them with support,” Kositsky said. “San Francisco is just very expensive, and we have to be as creative as we can be.”

After a full day at beauty school, Mackey grabbed his car keys to head to his son’s football practice. On the way, he opened his window and handed a dollar bill to a man at a stoplight holding a cardboard sign reading, “Help a homeless vet.”

Mackey parked and stood on the sidelines, watching Jamahl Jr. block and tackle in oversize shoulder pads. Playing on a Pop Warner team usually costs $250, but the single dad found a team that needed more kids, so the league dropped the price to $100, which he’s paying in installments.

Mackey himself was star high school running back before he dropped out. He still looks like a ball player with his thick shoulders, and he appeared wistful as he watched the practice.

“Now I get to live through him,” he said.

Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle

Jamahl Mackey Jr. listens as his father, Jamahl Mackey Sr., gives him tips during the Sacramento Jr. Hornets’ football practice.

Back home, Mackey motioned for Jamahl Jr. to hop up on a salon chair he keeps next to his kitchen table. It was time for a haircut. The boy fidgeted some and flicked hair off the barber cape covering his clothes before declaring that math was his favorite subject in school and that he likes getting trims from his dad.

He also likes Sacramento.

“It’s hot,” he said, swinging his legs. “And I don’t have to worry about being cold.”

Mackey is planning to stay in Sacramento, even though the support he receives from Hamilton Families runs out May 31. The organization’s subsidies are capped at two years.

He’s already setting up his barber business, printing business cards and creating an Instagram page to attract future customers. To gain experience and feed word of mouth, he’s been volunteering his buzzers and shears, cutting children’s hair at school functions and veterans’ events.

He said he doesn’t dwell on the hard times he and his son went through, when their closet was a car trunk.

“Your past makes you,” Mackey said. But he added, “Who actually wants to hear a silver spoon story? A lot of the best stories start at the very bottom.”